


a royal game of pretend

by arendellesfirstwinter



Category: Frozen (Disney Movies)
Genre: Gen, and elsa and anna getting the chance to be a family while they can, just some fluffy family feels, mostly fluff but also a tiny bit bittersweet, young!Anna, young!Elsa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-06
Updated: 2019-12-06
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:07:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21688069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arendellesfirstwinter/pseuds/arendellesfirstwinter
Summary: "And then he leaps forward and swish swish and the princess is free and then they kiss, mwah mwah mwah - ““But wait!” Elsa chimes in, quickly conjuring another figure with a wave of her hands. “Because the evil pirate captain jumps out from behind a tree! Rrrrgh!” Her growls are interspersed with giggles as she crooks her fingers into claws. “‘You’ve fallen into my trap!’” she says, voice as low as a young girl can make it. “‘And now, you’ll both pay!’”Or: A regular evening with the young princesses of Arendelle.
Relationships: Anna & Elsa (Disney)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 64





	a royal game of pretend

“‘ _Ahhh, save me!_ ’ the princess cries!

“‘ _Don’t worry, princess, for I am here to rescue you!_ ’

“‘ _Oh, Prince Handsome, save me!_ ’

“‘ _Well duh!_ ’ And then he _leaps_ forward and _swish swish_ and the princess is free and then they _kiss_ , _mwah mwah mwah_ \- “

“But wait!” Elsa chimes in, quickly conjuring another figure with a wave of her hands. “Because the evil pirate captain jumps out from behind a tree! Rrrrgh!” Her growls are interspersed with giggles as she crooks her fingers into claws. “‘ _You’ve fallen into my trap!_ ’” she says, voice as low as a young girl can make it, “‘ _And now, you’ll both pay!_ ’”

“ _Eeek_!” Squealing, Anna grabs the ice figures of the prince and princess and pretends to have them run away. “‘ _We must get to the ship!_ ’” she yells in her best impression of a posh prince, and guides the two figures to the edge of their forest-y playground. When they reach the end of the trees and hit the carpet, Anna whispers, “Psst, Elsa, we need a ship!”

Elsa squints. “Won’t the pirates also be out there?”

Blinking, Anna pauses. Then, she gasps. “Oh no! What will they do now?” She spins the figures around to look at the pirate Elsa’s advancing through the trees. “‘ _We have no choice!_ ’” she states dramatically in a high-pitched princess falsetto. 

With another twist of her wrists, Elsa creates two ships, one with a fearsome skull and crossbones at the front and cannons to either side, and the other with a smaller mast but sleeker build. The ship’s captain appears in a flurry on the ship’s bow, and Elsa moves his arm back and forth in an urgent wave. “‘ _Quickly! Get onboard as fast as you can!_ ’ And then he moves over here,” she quick-walks him to the side of the ship, “and he yells, ‘ _Raise the anchor!_ ’”

Anna hurls the prince and princess aboard the ship with a dramatic jump, and commands, “‘ _Set sail!_ ’”

Elsa crawls around Anna to grab the slow and abandoned pirate captain, and now it’s his turn to burst through the edge of the forest. “‘ _Curses!_ ’” Elsa runs him to his ship with one hand, but in the other, she creates a slick icy path for the heroes’ ship to follow. As the pirate captain stands aboard his ship, Elsa returns to the captain of the heroes’ ship, and lets out a joyous “‘ _Hooray! We’ve done it!_ ’” And with a gust of her magic, the ship coasts across the carpet (which will probably be soaked later, Elsa thinks with a wince) and away from the pirates.

“Safe at last,” Elsa says, in her own voice once more. “And so, the - “

“Nonono, wait!” Anna pleads. “It can’t be over yet, we need more, more, uh, more - “

“Peril?”

“Yes! More peril, more peril!”

Laughing, Elsa relents. “Okay, Anna, okay. Suddenly, the winds pick up, and _whoosh_!”

Elsa sends the pirate ship careening across the same path of ice towards the heroes, and switches her voice into that of a (debatably) menacing villain’s. “‘ _You thought you could get away from us so easily, aye? Fire the cannons!_ ’”

Anna gasps. “ _‘Oh no, Prince Handsome, what should we do?_ ’ ‘ _I don’t know, Princess, but we have to act quick!_ ’”

“‘ _Too late!_ ’” the pirate captain crows, and Elsa chucks a snowball at the heroes’ ship, and then another. She switches to the captain of the heroes’ ship: “‘ _We’ve been hit! We’re sinking!_ ’”

Anna shrieks and runs the prince and princess figures all around the ship’s deck in a panic, avoiding the relentless pelting of snowballs, until suddenly, Elsa makes another _whoosh_ sound and raises her arm and blasts an entire snow drift all around the ship. 

The prince and princess’ heads pop up above the top of the snow drift, their bodies still clutched in Anna’s chubby, child hands, and she gives another shriek, a combination of laughter and intense investment in the story. “‘ _We have to swim_ \- blblbllblb!’” Anna puffs her cheeks and bats her palms against them.

Blinking, Elsa cocks her head. “Wait, what are you doing?”

“I’m making the sound of the bubbles, duh, now pay attention - ‘ _But how will we make it back to shore? There’s no one to save us now_ bllbblblBbBLBL!’”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that! For ‘tis I, the brave, oh, hm. Help me out here, darlings!” With practiced ease, Mama tucks her dress beneath herself and kneels to the floor. (Elsa’s not surprised that she and Anna didn’t notice her enter - the story was just getting good, after all, and Mama’s quieter than Kai and Gerda combined.) 

Mama holds an open palm out to Elsa, who breaks into an ear-splitting grin.

Elsa turns to Anna and leans in close, whispering loudly, “Who should save them?”

Anna scrunches her nose a brief second, before her eyes light up and she shouts, “The Fairy Queen!”

Nodding sagely, Elsa twirls her fingers and passes a new figure into Mama’s waiting hand. Mama accepts the figure gracefully, and clears her throat. “‘ _With my fairy magic, I will first lift your ship up from above the waves!_ ’” And she digs her hands into the snowdrift to grab the capsized vessel, lifting it and its drowning occupants back to the “water’s” surface. “‘ _And next_ ,’ the Fairy Queen booms imperiously, ‘ _I_ _will_ \- ‘“

“Imperslee?”

“Imperiously,” Elsa corrects, earning an approving smile from Mama. “It means like, a command. Like super serious.”

“Like your papa when he gives orders,” Mama adds.

Anna snorts. “Like when we get in trouble for going into the kitchen when we’re not supposed to and taking cookies when we’re not supposed to especially when Olina’s just made a fresh batch, which means we’re extra not supposed to?”

Mama raises an eyebrow as Anna rambles, and Elsa hopes she doesn’t notice that Elsa’s been frantically motioning for Anna to stop throughout her example.

The corners of Mama’s lips turn upwards, and she eyes both of her daughters.”Which is something neither of you have ever done, yes?”

“Well, I mean - “

“Yes, Mama, we’ve never done that, isn’t that _right_ , Anna?” Elsa hisses, elbowing Anna gently in the ribs.

“What? Oh, that’s right, never ever ever! Anyway, the Fairy Queen!” Anna leans in in anticipation, and Elsa rolls her eyes at the lack of subtlety, but Mama thankfully seems to find the two of them more amusing than anything else.

Eyes twinkling with mirth, Mama coughs lightly and continues, “‘ _I will banish you pirates from these waters!_ ’ And the Fairy Queen uses her magic to send the pirates’ ship far far away!” Mama picks up the pirates’ ship and places it as far away as her reach allows, Anna giving added magical sound effects: _pew_ , _pew_ , _pew_!

“Then, with a gust of her magic,” Mama narrates, “the Fairy Queen brings the heroes’ ship safely back to shore.” And Elsa takes her cue and guides the ship back to the miniature frozen forest, and she disembarks the ship’s captain as Anna does the same with the prince and princess.

“‘ _Thank you sooo much!_ ’” the ‘princess’ squeals. In a lower pitch, Anna adds, “‘ _A Fairy Queen, whoa_.’”

“‘ _Now, wait a minute._ ’” Elsa wiggles the ship’s captain in her grip as she voices him. “‘ _How do we know we can trust this strange person?_ ’”

“Elsa!” Anna admonishes, offended. “She saved us!” She glances tentatively up at Mama, but Elsa notices that Mama doesn’t seem nearly as hurt. In fact, she’s simply raising a curious eyebrow at Elsa. Instead of speaking, Mama motions for Elsa to continue. The Fairy Queen figure stays hovering above the forest in Mama’s hold, silent and ethereal, with a billowing cloak and delicate wings and frosty eyes.

“Well, I mean,” Elsa coughs into her fist and deepens her voice, “‘ _I mean, I’ve never seen this stranger here before! She’s certainly no one from this kingdom!_ ’”

“‘ _But she saved us!_ ’” Anna argues as the princess. “‘ _So she has to be good!_ ’”

“‘ _That’s true, I guess._ ’” Elsa glances at Mama, waiting for her to jump in, but Mama always has preferred to sit back when the girls play, preferring to enhance the story the two are already choosing to tell.

With an excited squeal, Anna leaps to her feet, nearly startling Elsa into falling backwards. “I know!” She claps her hands and rocks on her heels. “We’ve never seen the Fairy Queen before because she’s from _super_ far away, from the Fairy Kingdom! And, and, and she got _lost_!”

Elsa’s entire focus is on Anna, but she swears, for a brief moment she sees Mama stiffen in the corner of her vision.

“She’s so brave because she’s just trying to go back home! So she’s helping the prince and princess in return for them helping her get back to her kingdom! Oh, how _tragical_!” Anna flops to the ground, an arm draped over face as she heaves a dramatic sigh.

“Does that sound right, Mama?” Elsa asks, and she furrows her brows just a bit at the almost far away look in Mama’s eyes. 

But then Elsa blinks, and the look is gone, and Elsa is probably imagining the extra crease in Mama’s brow as Mama speaks, “Of course. ‘ _I chose to help because you are good people, and I hope you can help me in return._ ’ But first - “

Mama lunges forward and scoops her two daughters into her arms, ignoring their shrieks of surprise. “First, we need to get you two ready for dinner.”

“Awwww, but _Mama_!” both Elsa and Anna cry out in dismay.

Laughing, Mama shakes her head and pulls them in for a tighter hug. “It’s getting late, you two, and if you don’t clean up now, then I’m afraid we’ll just have to skip dessert for tonight.”

Elsa hurriedly waves away all the ice and snow in the bedroom as Anna wriggles against Mama’s grip, shouting, “Let me go, I have to get ready!”

Mama relinquishes her hold and chuckles as Anna sprints to the door, her tiny fingers barely managing to grab the handle and pull it down before bolting down the hall at breakneck speed. 

“You wouldn’t actually take our dessert away, would you, Mama?” Elsa asks nervously, her voice feeling oddly out of place in the stillness of the Anna-less bedroom.

“Hmm,” Mama ponders, tapping her chin, “perhaps. It’s a good thing you accepted the Fairy Queen though, now isn’t it?”

Elsa rises to her feet along with Mama, brushing the snow from her gown. “I was always going to accept her,” Elsa states, reaching her hand up to hold Mama’s. The two of them move towards the door. “I only wanted to keep playing, but of course I know the Fairy Queen’s always good, especially if she’s you!” _And_ , Elsa thinks, _she uses her magic for good, just like me_! “Plus, now we have to help her get home!”

“Indeed,” Mama murmurs as they step into the hallway. 

“After all,” Elsa continues, “everyone deserves to be happy, and no one should ever be separated from the ones they love! Papa says that Anna and I should always lean on each other for help, and I can’t imagine ever being away from Anna, so I can’t imagine how the Fairy Queen must feel, being so far from home!” 

Nodding resolutely, Elsa declares, “So that’s why it’s now mine and Anna’s mission to make sure she gets home safe and sound!”

Elsa feels Mama squeeze her hand. “A noble goal, from two noble, big-hearted young girls.” Puffing her chest in pride, Elsa looks up just in time to see Mama brush her free hand under her eyes. Elsa’s concerned for a split second before Mama smiles widely. “Now come on, let’s wipe your face and see what Olina and the cooks have prepared for us tonight, yes?”

Stepping hand in hand, Elsa’s bare palm warm against Mama’s, the mother and daughter duo walk through the halls of their home to rejoin the other half of their family.

**Author's Note:**

> It's been, wow, I think five years since I last wrote for Frozen? Never did post the fics up on ao3, but I've got a decent-sized archive over on tumblr here: https://arendellesfirstwinter.tumblr.com/frozenfanfics
> 
> It feels so good to explore these characters once again after all these years, and a shout-out to Counterpunch (https://counterpunches.tumblr.com) for the three word prompt of: bubbles, handle, and wipe!


End file.
